| . | 04/25/2010
Creditors
By: Deirdre Donovan
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| Creditors star Anna Chancellor | |
photo by Hugo Glendinning
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In a marital relationship, where does you the individual end, and where does you the partnership begin? This knotty and troubling question is at the center of August Strindberg’s drama Creditors. Tautly directed by Alan Rickman, this 90-minute production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Harvey Theater blazes with naked and explosive passion.
Creditors is not considered one of Strindberg’s most important works, but its meaning is unmistakable. It is a reminder that marriage is a fragile relationship, and can be destroyed in the winking of a jealous eye. The jealous eye, in this case, is Tekla’s first husband Gustav. Years have passed since their divorce, and Gustav learns that his ex-wife Tekla is away on an extended visit, leaving her second husband Adolph alone. Gustav seizes this opportunity to go incognito to a seaside hotel resort where Adolph is staying. Overtly playing the Good Samaritan to Adolph, who is suffering from a form of severe exhaustion, Gustav persuades him that his independent-minded wife is an incurable coquette. We watch the diabolical Gustav plant seeds of doubt in Adolph’s mind, and then observe how these seeds fester and grow into toxic weeds of distrust in his mind.
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| Owen Teale and Tom Burke in Creditors
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| photo by Hugo Glendinning | |
The drama is a psychological thriller that combines the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock with the psychological depth of Eugene O’Neill. With the intensity of a boxing ring atmosphere, Strindberg creates a world and personalities ever-competing to be top dog. The author catches us unawares by sudden psychological swipes, feints, and one-two punches that land to our stunned amazement. One can actually hear gasps of shock and ripples of laughter in the audience during the entire play. Gustav’s perverse manipulation of Adolph is undeniably fascinating, chilling, and downright spooky. Their common bond, of course, is Tekla. And their major objective here is to prove their male superiority and sexual prowess.
The production under the direction of Alan Rickman, who is well-known as an actor, is impressive for its cold and clinical staging (set design by Ben Stones). Reminiscent of the surgical-white set used for Macbeth at BAM a few seasons ago, this set evokes the same uncompromising and meticulous feel. The lighting (by Howard Harrison) is monochrome and casts an otherworldly aura over the stage. All sentimentality has been stripped away from the story, and what is left here is raw human passion at its worst.
Rickman has directed the production with a sharp sense of the play’s possibilities. One couldn’t wish for a more psychologically-layered rendering of this dark comedy, as the cast brings in-depth feeling and precise intention to every scene. Tom Burke, as the ruggedly handsome Adolph, is spot on. Owen Teale, as the vengeful Gustav, is the epitome of a cunning serpent. And Anna Chancellor, as the fading beauty Tekla, deftly balances both the dominating and vulnerable sensibilities of her character. The elegant outfits (by Fotini Dimou) deserve mention in their own right, but also because they so aptly reflect the entangling relationships of the characters. When Gustav compliments Tekla on being well-dressed, she responds: “It’s you who taught me that!” To be sure, Creditors is all about debts—great and small—that we owe each other. From learning the proper way to dress oneself, to the building of one’s self-esteem, we are quite literally in debt to each other.
Creditors reportedly is based on the author’s own bitter marital experience. Not only can we sense in this play a valid chronicle of a failed marriage and its devastating aftermath, but it also effectively shows us that love and hate are flip sides of the same coin. Strindberg’s trio of characters are intentionally drawn broadly here, making them archetypal figures who easily fit into a dreamscape. Going to this play (written in 1888) today, we admire the author for his expressionistic technique, which was to become his indelible signature and lasting contribution to theater. In fact, Strindberg is the forerunner to the great American playwright Eugene O’Neill, who unabashedly borrowed from this titanic genius to write his own dream-like plays.
The most fatal mistake is to see Strindberg’s play as all downbeat. This production is never totally that for it is rounded out with some wonderfully comic scenes and pithy one-liners. The character Gustav is the villain of the piece and does some mustache twirling to wonderful effect. Yet the play is dead serious at its core. And if you want evidence of Strindberg’s misogynistic bent, this play provides ample instances of it. Consider the character Gustav as he bluntly confronts the ailing Adolph at the hotel resort, and tells the exhausted man that his wife Tekla has destroyed his well-being and spiritual equilibrium: “She has eaten your soul, this woman; your courage, your knowledge…”
David Greig’s translation is written with the verve of ordinary speech. The tone is lyrical but the real-life clichés flecked into the dialogue ground it firmly into the here and now. To be sure, we can detect the drama’s subtle poetry without getting lost in any pretentious or old-fashioned phrases.
Miss this Donmar Warehouse production, and miss an opportunity to see A-list performances in a top-notch staging of Strindberg. Under the direction of Rickman, this play isn’t flashy but it’s unforgettable.
Brooklyn Academy of Music, at the Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton StreetTickets: $25, $45, $65, $75.BAM ticket services phone (718) 636-4100 or visit www.BAM.org Through May 16th.
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